County Wants Dumps’ Sizes, Lives Expanded

After years of importing trash to help pay its bankruptcy debt, Orange County must expand the size and life span of two county-run landfills near Brea and Irvine to meet future local needs, officials said Monday.

The proposal was immediately greeted with skepticism by those cities’ officials, who hold veto power over any expansion plans.

“I’m not going to sit still for any expansion . . . if it results in our residents seeing, hearing or smelling this landfill,” Irvine City Councilman Chris Mears said. “If any expansion of that facility changes the quality of life for residents, I say no deal.”

Mears and other local officials blame the capacity crunch in part on trash from neighboring counties imported to help pay the bankruptcy debt.

But officials for the county’s Integrated Waste Management Department said even without imported trash, the county would face the same problem.

They warn that the county will have to start sending trash to private dumps in Riverside County as early as 2013 if no action is taken. That could double the $22-a-ton rate now paid by local cities, said Linda Hagthrop, project manager for the waste management department.

In 1999, the waste department began planning for a county expected to grow from 2.8 million people to 3.3 million in less than two decades. Each new resident is estimated to generate seven pounds of trash daily.

Orange County supervisors must certify a plan by 2004 that meets the region’s trash needs for 40 years. The expansion proposals for Brea and Irvine landfills are part of that blueprint, and because neighboring cities can veto any expansion, county officials will have to win their approval. Seven public meetings are scheduled this month to gather public opinions.

Cities Eye Money for Other Projects

The proposal for the Olinda Alpha landfill near Brea would add 33 acres and delay closure from 2013 to 2021. Its maximum height would be raised 100 feet to 1,400 feet.

Brea City Councilwoman Bev Perry said the county would have to offer strong incentives to win approval--perhaps tens of millions of dollars to buy scenic hillside property that private landowners now plan to develop.

“It’s really something that the community has to discuss,” she said. But “what’s eight more years if we can buy some open space that people desperately want to preserve in our community? That’s quite a trade-off. It might well be worth it to us for just eight more years.”

Perry said she would also like to see traffic problems eased, possibly by banning residents from hauling trash themselves.

But fellow council member Steve Vargas disagreed.

“We don’t need the money. I’d rather reduce traffic in Brea by closing the landfill as scheduled. They need to keep the word they’ve given to the citizens of Brea for the last 40 years.”

Near Irvine, the height of the Frank R. Bowerman landfill would increase 250 feet to 1,350 feet, and the county would study buying adjacent Round Canyon from the Irvine Co. to expand the landfill.

Mears said that may mean keeping the dump operating for 20 years past its projected closure in 2024. Part of the reason, Mears said, is imported trash.

“Why is our city supporting the importation of trash from outside the county so this Board of Supervisors can reduce its debt?” Mears asked.

The county is scheduled to stop taking other counties’ waste in 2015. But county voters may see a ballot initiative seeking to halt the practice in 2003. Orange County began importing trash after it declared bankruptcy in late 1994. Since 1995, nearly $100 million in dumping fees has been paid by other counties’ trash haulers, a significant portion of what the county pays on its bankruptcy bond debt of nearly $1 billion.

But Irvine officials say the county should explore other options, and shouldn’t be so quick to rule out exporting the garbage to private landfills in other counties.

Greg Smith, Irvine’s representative on the county’s Integrated Waste Management Commission, doubts that the rate increase needed if the dumps closed on time would be as great as waste officials say. He said he has seen figures showing that the increase could be as little as 5%.

“We can’t rule anything out until we have all the information,” Smith said. “Whatever the final resolution is has to be fair to the citizens of Irvine.”

In South County, a separate review is being done on whether to expand the Prima Deshecha landfill’s life span from 2040 to 2063.

San Juan Capistrano residents say they’re tired of the trash trucks clogging the Ortega Highway, and city officials warn that the only way they will agree to expansion of Prima Deshecha is if traffic conditions improve.

City Manager George Scarborough said that would be extremely difficult, because the county proposes to increase the amount of trash by thousands of tons per day there.

“We are taking a firm position,” Scarborough said. “We need incentives. The situation must get better than it is today, not simply prevent future damages.”

Further information on the public hearings is available at (714) 834-3562.

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Graphics reporting by BRADY MacDONALD / Los Angeles Times